The former head of Sri Lanka’s army Sarath Fonseka stated in parliament that he “would have been delighted” if cyclone Burevi had occurred during Maaveerar Naal last week, as storms and rains battered the Tamil North-East.
Cyclone Burevi, which has severely hit the Tamil occupied North-East, has impacted tens of thousands of people across the Tamil homeland, destroying homes and displacing families.
“I am not saying that the Tamil people should be harmed’’ stated Fonseka who stands accused of overseeing war crimes.
He went on to add that “Maaveerar Naal commemorations can never be allowed to take place,” according to a report in the Tamil newspaper Kaalaikathir.
Despite brutal crackdown by the Sri Lankan military across the Tamil homeland against Maaveerar Naal commemorations last week, Tamils resisted and joined others around the world to mark Maaveerar Naal on November 27, to remember and pay tribute to the Maaveerar who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil struggle for liberation.
The ex-commander of the Sri Lankan army went on to say during his speech that Tamil civilians were not killed in the final stage of the war in 2009, and that it was the LTTE that forced Tamil youth at the forefront, stating ‘‘We will not allow separatism to rise again in this country”.
At the end of the armed conflict in 2009, UN data suggests that more than 70,000 Tamils were killed in the final months alone. Local census records reveal that at least 146,679 people are unaccounted for and are presumed to have been killed. Calls for an international independent investigation into allegations of genocide against Tamils have repeatedly been rejected by the Sri Lankan state.
